Community Legal Services

As a multidisciplinary organization, we do a lot more than legal services. However, we know how important it is that community members and our families get accurate legal information and representation through our Community Legal Services Project (CLSP). Since we opened our doors in 2002, we have talked to, or emailed with, more than 3,000 people who had questions about their legal rights in more than a dozen areas of law. Through answering these questions (or sometimes only trying to answer them), we not only help people address their immediate legal needs, but we keep ourselves informed about the day-to-day issues that transgender people and our families are facing.

All of our CLSP services are provided free of charge. CLSP services are targeted to people who live in California. If you live outside of California, our written materials may help you as general guidelines but the information is likely not completely accurate under your own states laws. We do respond to out of state requests for legal information, but usually will only be able to provide you with guidance on finding help in your local community.

If you are facing a legal issue or want more information about your rights, feel free to contact us. We’re happy to work with you to understand the situation you’re facing and provide you with individualized information to help you move towards a resolution.You can email us, call us at (415) 865-0176, or contact us to schedule an in-person appointment.

In a limited number of cases, we actually take cases and provide clients with limited legal representation. We decide on a case-by-case basis which cases to accept, but generally only provides these services to about 10 15% of the people who contact us for legal information. The best way to get started is to contact us by email, phone, or attend one of our clinics.

If you’re part of a transgender group or organization in California, contact us about a free Transgender Law 101 workshop. These free workshops provide information about laws and regulations which affect a person’s ability to express their gender identity and can be conducted in English or Spanish. Participants leave the workshop with a better idea of their rights under the law and those legal barriers that still exist to full gender expression. If you would like to schedule a workshop for your group or organization, please call us at (415) 865-0176 or email us.

As you can see on our publications page, we have written a lot of fact sheets, guides, and reports about transgender legal issues. Each of these should be helpful in better understanding your rights and some of the steps you can take to enforce those rights. If you have trouble downloading any of the publications, let us know via email and we’ll mail a free copy to you.